


Ad astra per aspera

by ViridianAlien



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: AU, Crossover, F/F, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Some characters from a different Fandom will be mentioned, this is a mess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-02
Updated: 2020-02-08
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:28:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22521004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ViridianAlien/pseuds/ViridianAlien
Summary: Earth polluted ecosystem made life unsustainable, one day, humans couldn’t live there anymore.Fortunately, the great professor Membrane built Astra, the space station set up in the end of the Milky Way, rescuing most of earth’s population. Three years after the events, their life in Astra is settling down normally, until one day, the visit from an special group of irkens, spin everyone around.
Relationships: Dib/Zim (Invader Zim)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 29





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Heeeeere we go again.
> 
> Honestly I have no idea what this exactly is. I just thought of something and then it escalated into this  
> Anyway I hope you like aaaand happy Zadrday!
> 
> First song is this one: https://youtu.be/U4hMQtcKfQo
> 
> Second song is this one: https://youtu.be/YdlfGYYyUkw

The space station was rather quiet that day. On earth, it was called Friday, in here it was just another day were their routines went by without any much difference.

Dib Membrane found himself working on his laboratory, experimenting with different kind of plants that the researchers found on a planet next to the space station. His work was focused on finding healthy and secure ecosystem for humans on uninhabited planets, where they could eventually settle into.

So far, non of the visited planets had what they were looking for, and even though it was rather frustrating, they still had high hopes.

“Hey, dumbass! Lunch time.” Gaz stepped inside the laboratory without even knocking or asking for permission to come in, nothing strange coming from his sister.

“Just one minute…” Dib mumble without taking his gaze from the screen in front of him. Even though the researchers couldn’t find any hospitable planet, they found some evolved lifeforms, Dib studied them in order to find something useful for his own race.

Gaz approached and slap his head from behind to get his attention, which it worked.

“Ouch! Gaz, jeez! I get it, I get it!” Dib finally left his work behind to come out of the laboratory. Until that moment, he didn’t realize how hungry he was.

Both of them hurried up to the main restaurant where his father and stepfather were waiting for them.

“Here!” Professor Membrane raised his hand from where he was sitting next to his partner.

A year ago, Professor Membrane got married with his laboratory partner, professor Utonium. Both of them were responsables of the space station development.

Dib and Gaz were happy for his dad since he never dated anyone after their mothers death many years ago, and their family got a bit bigger since now, they didn’t only have another dad, but also three stepsisters.

Lunch passed with the four of them chatting about their works until the screams of three teenagers girls interrupted them and the whole restaurant.

“DADDY, DADDY, DADDY!!

The Rebels, the Rebels are coming!

They’re coming!” The three joyful and excited girls came running towards professor Utonium, shaking him from side to side as they screamed.

“Rebels?? Who are they? Is this a threat? why are you so excited?!” Dib, utterly confused asked to his stepsisters, making everyone laugh.

“I know you don’t usually get out of your laboratory but come on Dib! Even I know who The Rebels are…” answered Gaz before drinking her soda.

“The Rebels are a band!

The greatest band on this side of the galaxy!

And they are coming tomorrow!” The three girls screamed once again.

“Let me guess, you need credits for the tickets, don’t you?” Professor Utonium raised his wrist, typing over a bracelet, The Membracelet, a device used for many things including communication and credit holder.

“Oh dear, I believe the girls would be happier if we get them some special passes, we can even get a meet and greet with the band! I only need to speak with someone in charge of the event and I’m sure they won’t have a problem with it.” Professor Membrane pointed out, provoking another loud scream from the girls and practically tackle him with a hug, thanking him again and again. “You are more than welcome girls! But, someone has to go with you to the event. You’re still minors and can’t go by yourselves like that.”

“Maybe we can go with them?” Offered professor Utonium.

“I would love to go, but we have a video conference with the Vortian minister tomorrow, and it’s very important… Maybe one of you can go with them?” Professor Membrane looked at Gaz and Dib.

“Ah, sorry girls, I have training tomorrow at the deck and I can’t skip it if I want to become captain.” Said Gaz before standing up and basically running away from there.

“Well I--“

“DIB, PLEASE COME WITH US! Pretty pleaaaaaase!

I promise I will give you all of my desserts for a month!

And I promise not to punch you ever again!” The three girls were over him, pleading and pouting, with big puppy eyes.

Dib was speechless, how could he say no to them. He had nothing special for tomorrow, besides, he was curious about this so called band and what kind of aliens were part of it. “Fine… I’ll go with you--BUT stop screaming, please.”

The triplets covered their mouths nodding enthusiastically before hugging their stepbrother.

“Excellent! We’ll make the necessary arrangements. Now, let us all get back to work.”

“Yes, and you girls better go and make your homework or none of you will go to--“ Utonium couldn’t finish before the girls practically stormed away.

* * *

Astra's stadium was full of lights and smoke. People gathered there waiting anxiously for the band.

Dib and his sisters were on their sits, four special spots in the front row, apart from everyone else in the place. Being the son and daughters of the brightest scientists of earth sure had its perks.

Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup (Yes, those were their names. Their parents used to be kind of hippies back in college) were taking pictures and videos from the place and themselves before the show started.

Dib was sitting quietly in his place, looking for some things at his Membracelet but got bored after a while so he finally decided to chat with the girls. “So, what kind of aliens are part of the band?”

“it’s a band with Irkens only.” Answered Bubbles with a bright smile before taking another selfie.

“Wooah, hold on… Irkens? As in The irken race from planet Irk?!”

“Well, duuuuh!” Answer Buttercup, rolling her eyes as it was the most obvious thing in the universe.

“Okay, I mean, they are supposed to be a really dangerous race! They have a huge army and their empire is one of the biggest in many Galaxies! Why do they even have a band?!”

“Understandable question.” Blossom said getting closer to her brother. “The members of the band are basically rebels. They left the empire many time ago, and since all of them are quite good with technology, they create their own instruments and eventually produced their music. There has never been a band from Irk, nor even someone of their race creating something just for mere entertainment. And yes, the name of the band its pretty much of a joke for them at this point since they had never tried to do something harmful against their empire or another race.”

“There’s also a rumor about them!” Bubbles came closer to whisper into Dibs ear. “Some aliens think they killed their prince before becoming rebels!”

Buttercup paused the video she was recording to step into the conversation. “Come on! They never found the body. As far as everyone knows, there is a chance that the prince just ran away or maybe some other member of the royal family killed him and blamed the rebels.”

Dib had no idea about any of these stories. He had read about irkens a while ago in one of his researchs. The space station council considered an alliance with Irk, but this was rejected after discovering how lethal the race could be. Thinking in how a ruthless, military endorsed alien species could produce a music band was simply ridiculous and kind of suspicious, but after listening to his sisters stories it was bit believable.

Minutes later, the show finally began. The crowd gone wild when the lights over the stage flickered in different neon colors and the sound of an electric keyboard echoed all over the place.

From the ground, a huge panel came out, with three irkens controlling it.

According to his studies, Dib knew irkens had green skin and big bug like eyes, they usually only wear some kind of uniform that covered most of their bodies, but the ones on the stage where quite different. They had colorful stripes all over their skins and antennae that matched their eyes and clothes, each one of them with a different color, one cyan, one orange and one Lilac.Their clothes were nothing like Irk’s uniforms. They looked like tight spacesuit made out some kind of neon see-through fabrics, and underneath them, another kind of bodypaint pattern covering their chest and lower stomach. Their whole outfit glowed in the dark whenever the lights went out.

_Walking on the moon_

_Walking on the moon_

The screen behind them showed the face of another irken with yellow eyes, singing. They were singing in irken language, but after some adjustments to his membracelet, Dib was able to translate what their were saying.

_Take… one moment to escape_

_It will change your mood_

_When you're walking on the moon_

_Walking on the moon walking on the moon_

Their voice sounded like it was some kind of advanced auto tune, but his stepsisters said it wasn’t, that was how their actual voice sounded like.

_Chase your happy place_

_It will change your groove_

_When you're dancing on the moon_

_Dancing on the moon_

The lights flickered once again before the yellow irken appeared on the stage in front the panel, holding out their hands as singing.

_When we dance again_

_All our trouble seems to fade away_

_This is how I feel_

_When you take me to some levels that I've never been…_

From the irken's hands, an hologram displayed. It was a colorful escenary and the irken move the figures on it as they were string puppets. It looked simple but well performed.

Dib never went to a concert back on earth, but he saw a few ones on the internet. The Rebels presentation was well made, colorful, the sounds were appealing and the music got everyone on their feet dancing.

After some songs, the irkens on the panel stood up, jumped high above it until they landed next to the singer, and perform together the last song.

_The Capitone Diary, hi, welcome back_

_Four to Uranus, date, stars I continued my search for good living conditions_

_Until the resources almost ran out Instead of going home, I found myself in a fantasy…_

Their dance moves were absolutely amazing, they were so fast and elegant, with an impecable synchronization, they even did some flips and jumps, landing in some kind of holoplatforms all over the stage, flying above the audience heads.

_Alone, confused_

_Facing a vague future_

_Who would say, if at all_

_We are all lost in space_

_Sometimes it is not easy_

_Do not feel so miserable_

_Come with me, that’s a shame_

_We are all lost in space_

The presentation was better than Dib could imagine, in the end even he was having a good time, dancing an jumping like he never ever did before.

Professor Membrane promised was fulfilled amazingly. First, The Rebels were settled in a private area of the space station, where only the prime ministers and important representatives of other planets stayed when they had meetings with the Space station Council.

The girls were so excited that as soon as the concert finished, they all ran to the bands suite and waited for them in the living room.

Dib wasn’t excited about the meeting but, he was curious about the irkens, not so much about their music, but how they ended up in that kind of industry.

“Greetings humans!” The lead singer, the one dressed in yellow entered the room with his arms opened and with much more enthusiasm than someone would expect from a performer after a four hour show. “Thank you for coming to our show! I hope you enjoyed yourselves. Now, pictures time!”

“ZIM!” the three girls gasped and screamed the singers name as soon as they saw him, raising their Membracelets to take pictures of him.

“Hi everyone! Oooooh look, worm babies!” the cyan irken ran quickly towards the girls, waving his hand rapidly and smiling widely at them.

“GIR!” the girls screamed once again.

“Gir, that’s not how they called them! I believe the correct name is ‘kids’”the orange irken, kind of a chubby one, corrected before saluting.

“MOOSE!”

“In this case, the proper name is ‘teenagers’” the lilac irken add before getting inside, waving at the girls before looking at Dib “Oh, and one adult apparently.” This irken had curly antennae, which indicated the gender, a female irken among then.

“VIR”

“An adult one?!” Zim practically pushed everyone aside to walked towards Dib, cupping his face between his three fingered hands so he could look at him better “Fascinating! I’ve never saw humans until today, and when they told us we were getting to know a few ones I was excited, but I thought there were gonna be just children.”

“Really? Ah--“ it was hard to talk with his face being grabbed, especially when the one holding him was quite interesting. The big yellow eyes, the paint covering his green skin, which was pretty soft and lizard like. The irkens height was pretty small compared to his. While he was around 6' irkens were around 5’5 almost the same height as his stepsisters. And, of course, they had no respect for personal space whatsoever.

“You are beautiful… In a strange, primitive way, of course, but beautiful!” Zim said it so casually, letting Dib’s face go before stepping back a little to take a better look of the human.

Dib was completely flustered by the irken's words and behavior, the giggles from his stepsisters didn’t help much either. He usually was the one examinating aliens all the time, so being the one examined was kind of unsettling. “Yeah--I guess, uhm… thank you?”

“Look at that, you already broke him… He’s all red and sweaty” Vir said while she was taking some pictures with the girls.

“Aaaw not fair Zim! I wanted to play with him and now it’s broken” Said Gir grabbing one of Dibs arm before shaking him slightly.

“Don’t worry! You didn’t break him.

Our brother is not used to being called beautiful!” the girls add, laughing even harder.

“You are not? But you are beautiful!” Zim insisted, getting closer to Dib once again.

“Well, umm, I guess I’m just used to another kind of compliments”

“Compliments??” the four irkens said out loud and at the same time with a confused look on their faces.

“Being beautiful is not a compliment! At least not on Irk.” Said Moose as he walked the table at the end of the room. The table was full of junk food, which was the irkens favorite kind of food surprisingly.

“It isn’t?” Asked Dib with a confused and a bit hurt look.

“Of course not! Being beautiful is something you are, not something you can earn or learn from. Being brave, strong or smart is praised and respected on Irk, because you have to train hard to achieve one of those, or the three of them!” Zim took a seat on one of the couches in the place.

The girls and Vir were chatting away, since she was the only girl in the band, they admired her very much, and had many questions for her.

“That make sense. Back on earth things were pretty much the same.” Dib sat not so far from Zim before continuing. “I mean, we admire strong and smart people but also beautiful people, actually, the beautiful you were, the more attention you had! There even were this models, people whose main job were being beautiful!”

“Nonsense, absolutely nonsense!” Zim answered completely baffled about it. “Wait... you were one of these models?”

“Oh no! No, my father had this huge laboratory and I worked with him since I was little--“

“You are a scientist!” Zim eyes practically glowed once he heard him. “Moose, this one is a scientist!”

“Ah, you can call me Dib, Dib Membrane!”

“Dib! That’s easy to remember.” Said Moose as he sat down with many donuts in his arms, offering each to them. “What kind of things you do in your laboratory?”

“Well, right now we are trying to find a planet where we can settle in, so I study the atmosphere, the lifeforms in there and everything in order to know if the planet is safe for us.”

Zim listened attentively while he took a bite to his donut. “Which planets have you studied?”

“Just a few ones near by. Our spaceships can’t travel for many days without energy and they are still not that fast.”

“That’s pretty easy to fix!” Gir chimed in with a plate full of different kinds of food on his hands. “Moose and I were engineers on Irk, we worked on maaaaany spaceships and we even improved some ships we had from other planets. I’m sure we can help you with that!”

“Really?! I mean, it would be helpful for our future research but I can’t ask you to just do it.”

“Of course, beautiful one! We will gladly help you on your research. In fact, I think I can make a list of some of the planets that are uninhabited, which atmosphere and environment is safe for your race.”

“You know places like that?!” Dib was so surprised by Zim’s words that he even forgot how he called him beautiful again.

Their conversation stood just the same for the rest of the night before Dib basically dragged the girls out of the bands quarters. They only accepted once Dib told them that the band was going to stay for a while in the space station.

* * *

The Rebels were not only great musicians, each of them were competent in their respectives areas. After Gir and Moose improved the machinery inside Astra’s spaceships, Vir taught the pilots how to use the new functions on the ships and some emergency maneuvers and procedures in case they were attacked. Zim download many maps on Dib’s system, and they spent a couple of weeks studying them, choosing some planets to visit once the ships were ready.

“This planet here is Foodcortia, you can find any kind of food all over the galaxy, I believe some of these places have food safe for humans to consume…”

“So this whole planets is a big Food court? Really?”

“What? What is so surprising about? Why would you travel from planet to planet just get some food? When you can go to one and get all of them!”

“Well, when you put it that way… it actually makes sense.”

“[ANNOUNCEMENT: CODE 3072. ASTRA’S STAFF, PLEASE REPORT TO THE MAIN DECK. TEN MINUTES TO REPORT.]” the automatic female voice made the announcement that could be heard around the whole space station.

“Uh, what was that?” Zim raised his head away from the screen as he asked.

“Apparently we will having some guests besides you, I don’t really remember who or where are they from, but my parents are kind of excited about this ones so, everyone must be there to salute them.” Dib shut everything off before standing up from his seat, followed by the irken. Both walked out the laboratory, still talking.

“… And the Vort Dogs! Oh beautiful one, I can assure you have never tried anything like it before!”

“Damn, now I’m hungry…” Dib still hadn’t got used to be called beautiful, he was trying to be polite and didn’t try to cut Zim off, besides, he kind of liked it.

A couple of steps behind them, Professor Membrane walked, entering some commands on his Membracelet.

“Do you hear that? I think those are wedding beeeells” Professor Utonium approached his partner before whispering loud enough for Membrane to listen but not enough for everyone else.

“Wedding Bells? What?...” Membrane turned his head around to see what his husband was talking about.

“Oh no! I’m not telling anything if you haven’t noticed. This is a discovery you must do by yourself.” Utonium said trying not to laugh about his words. Membrane kept looking around trying to catch any clue, but he couldn’t

“You are just the worst… Now hurry up, our guests are almost here.”

* * *

The entire staff were waiting in front of a huge round door to be opened, and when it finally happened, professor Membrane and Utonium walked towards it, smiling at the gray small aliens on the other side “Greetings and welcome to Astra!”

“Vortians?!” Zim and the rest of the band stood behind Dib’s laboratory crew, and when he saw the visitors, he whispered under his breath.

“Zim we have to go! They can’t see us in here, i don’t want to get the humans in trouble.” Vir whispered as well, holding Gir and Zim’s hands, followed closely by Moose, to drag them away from the crowd, hoping that no one would notice.

“Yes, it’s our pleasure to be in here and thank you for this warm welcome, I can’t remember the--

WHAT?! WHAT ARE THEY DOING HERE?!” one of the vortians screamed out loud when they saw the irkens from the corner of his eye.

Even when they tried to sneak away, they didn’t do it fast enough and the vortians, as well as the entire staff turned around, to look at them.

Moose was the first to turn his gaze, holding his hands out before speaking. “Listen vortians! We mean no harm against you and these humans, so we just walk away and avoid any—“

“ATTACK!” The three vortians took some kind of laser weapons out of their pockets before shooting at the irkens.

The entire staff ran immediately for cover, but both of the professors were to close and got trapped between the fire. When Dib saw them, he ran at them instead of covering himself.

The irkens quickly dodge the attack before activating their weapons. Vir, Moose and Gir ran to the end of one halls, followed by two of the vortians. They’re plan was to get them away from the humans as much as possible, but one of the vortians stood there.

“No! Don’t shoot in here! You will harm the humans!” Shouted Zim as he kept on avoiding the vortian’s attacks.“Vortian! Stop it, you are going to harm innocent lives!”

“My name is Lard Narr! You know who I am well enough! And innocent?!! How innocent can they be if they are your allies?!” Yes, Zim knew who he was, one of the leaders of Vort, he was fuming with rage, waving his weapon around menacingly. “This was a trap! But you can not fool Lard Narr, stinky humans!” He shot again, but this time, he wasn’t aiming at Zim.

Everything went down fast after that.

“Dad!” before the laser reached him, Dib pushed his dad away, receiving the shot instead, which launched him away to one of the walls.

“DIB!” Zim screamed, holding his hand out as he saw the human bleeding from one of his arms on the floor. Both of his parents ran after him to see how much damage he had. His arm was pretty injured and he was crying out of pain but he was still conscious. “You are going to regret this you PUNY vortian!” Suddenly, some kind of spider legs came out of Zim’s back, as well as two laser weapons. He attacked the vortian back, chasing him around the place while he tried to escape.

His parents helped Dib to walk out of there, leading him quickly to the medbay which was on the other side of the space station. Dib heard the shooting behind him but he couldn’t turn his head to see exactly what was happening. They were crossing the station's garden when the vortian flew across them, hitting his body harshly on the ground.

Zim came running quickly with his spider legs, aiming once again at the vortian, but before he could shot again, the vortian threw some kind of spit out of his mouth, landing on one of Zim’s eyes, making him hissed in pain immediately. The vortian spit was made of some kind of acid, he did this to hurt the irken and run far from him to grab his gun again, but before he could even moved, he watched how one the irken's eye was practically melting, and smiled with delight “Ha! Foolish irken! I knew you were only-- No... No, no! this is impossible! Prince Amaranth?!”

The vortian screamed out pretty loud for everyone to hear. Dib and his parents were walking away but when he listened at what the vortian just said, he stood there and turned to look at the aliens.

Zim rubbed his eye before blinking a couple of times. It had changed its color dramatically to a bright magenta instead of yellow, and as soon as he heard that name coming out of the vortians mouth, he used one of his spider legs to stab Lard Narr right in his chest. “I was not going to kill you… But now that you now who I am, I can’t let you go…” Zim’s face was menacing and terrifying, he went completely berserk, attacking the vortian with no mercy.

The vortian pleaded for his life but it was worthless, Zim stabbed him again and again until the vortian didn’t move anymore.

“Dib! We have to go, you are hurt and need medical assistance right away!” Membrane insisted, knowing what was happening on his sons mind, but explanations could wait.

Zim made sure that Lard Narr was dead before activating a device on his chest to communicate with his team. “Vir, aim to kill!”

“ _But Zim we can’t--_ “

“He saw me, he knew who I am…”

A couple of shots could be heard on the other side of the line before Vir answered. “ _Yes, your majesty, over and out…”_


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Weeeeeeell second part of this thing I call a Zadr AU!  
> I still have no idea where this come from but I'm kind of liking it so here, enjoy!
> 
> Aand happy Zadrday!

After the failed visit, Astra’s staff and the Rebels cleaned and fixed all the damages, which fortunately were less than imagined.

The Rebels got rid of the Vortians bodies in the most discreet way possible, even when Gir insisted in just burned them or sent them through one airlock.

The irkens decided to leave Astra, they couldn’t risk the humans safety with an attack of another race, or worse. Their ship was almost ready to leave, but before any of them got in, one person came running to stop they departure.

“Hey! Wait, wait please!” Professor Utonium ran as fast as he could, waving his hands at the irkens to get their attention.

“Professor? Is it everything okay?” Vir asked as she approached the man.

“No! The guards told me you were going away from the station. Please, wait! My husband and I want to talk to you, and Dib is almost out of surgery, I’m sure he would like to talk to you as well.”

Vir turned to see Zim before answering. He was doubtful about it, if they stayed, there was gonna be a lot of questions, and some things he rather preferred kept them in secret, but the humans were kind to them, the least they deserved was an explanation about what just happened.

Zim nod once before Vir did it, following professor Utonium back to the station.

* * *

“The laser burned your skin and some muscles, but luckily, it didn’t touch any arteries so your blood loss is less than we thought. According to the stats, you will be better in a few days.” Professor Membrane explained his son the procedure they made on him to fix his arm, and the news were better than imagined.

In a private room on the medbay, Dib was resting with his injured arm over his stomach, meanwhile his sisters listened to their fathers explanations.

“Oh, you are not getting a robotic arm, so sad!

They can give you one though! With lasers and many guns!

I’m just happy Dib is okay!” said the triplets from the other side of the room.

“Next time you throw yourself to save someone, use your face as a shield, you’ll have an excuse to fix it.”

“Thanks dad, girls and Gaz…” Dib was glad nothing worse happened, and glad about the weird but encouraging words of his sisters. “I’m glad I’m not gonna be here for so long.”

“No, son, thanks to you. You literally threw yourself to protect me, that was--"

“Absolutely brave! The most selfless act anyone can perform!“ Zim and the Rebels reached the door as professor Membrane thanked his son, and he couldn’t help but expressed his thoughts about what Dib did “I mean, may we come in?”

Everyone turned their heads towards the door, looking at the irkens with a dead glare before professor Utonium step inside.

“Girls, can you please leave us alone? Go home and wait for us there.” Hesitantly, the triplets and Gaz left the room, mumbling something when they passed near the irkens.

Once everyone were settled inside, the explanation began. “I know you have a lot of questions, and we are going to answer all of them in the most honest way… I guess you all heard how the Vortian called me, and it is true. My name is Amaranth, prince heir of Irk's throne. Since I was born, I’ve been preparing myself to be the next king of Irk. At the beginning, my lessons were the usual, military training, weapons expertising, and some other things I prefer not to talk about. When the King died on battle, my mother pushed myself to the limit in order to be a worthy heir, and it almost killed me. One day I realized I never wanted to be a king... I longed for travels, discovering, learning all about other planets and alien races. So I finally decided to run away from home. My cousin Vir wanted to escape as well, so we asked for help to Gir and Moose, whom where our head scientists at that time. It wasn't easy but we did it, we travel as far as we could from Irk, we choose our disguises to blend with the most common irkens and then, we finally traveled peacefully. It has been so long since we left Irk, and we are so far from them... We never thought one of the strongest enemies of Irk would find us here!”

Both professors and Dib listened attentively, having more questions than before. “And why exactly are the Vortians your enemies?”

“Well…” Zim was about to answer when Vir raised her hand to cut him off.

“It’s my fault. I’m the only female with royal blood and I always knew my duty was to be unified with someone important from other planet in, order to make an alliance stronger with them.” Vir turned her gaze to see at Gir, he took her hand as he smiled before she continued. “But I fell in love… The day I was supposed to be unified with Vort's prime Minister, we ran away. The vortians got mad because the union didn’t get through and they named Irk their number one enemy. After we escaped from Irk, we changed our names and features, so no one outside the empire could recognize us. Unfortunately, the vortians doesn’t care how we look or who we are, as long as we are Irkens, we are enemies, and it’s because of me.”

“It’s not your fault, Vortians are too stingy about their stupid unions” Gir mumbled into Vir's head before resting his forehead over. Dib hesitated for a moment before making his question.“Okay, I think this kind of explains the rumors about you but, why would you make a band? Isn’t a bit too dangerous considering how famous you are?”

“Music is forbidden on Irk!” Moose answered. “We are not allowed to have any kind of entertainment, specially music, so when we became famous, the empire order our immediate banishment and they forbade us to come near Irk ever again. They even declared a death penalty if we ever do, but obviously, none of us want to come back!”

“It makes sense… You became outcasts of your empire to make sure they never try to find you.” Professor Membrane said.

“Exactly! And we are really sorry to cause all this trouble and get your son injured, professor. We promise to go right away and never come back.” Zim apologize with a vow, crossing his arms behind him.

“So you are going, just now?...” Dib brows furrowed with the irken's words. He knew it was quite dangerous for the Rebels to stay in Astra, but he didn’t want them to go.

Professor Utonium walked to the irkens with a serious look in his face. “I think, even when you represent a threat to our safety, you were the only ones capable of defending us from the vortians. We’ve been so focused on developing our life here in Astra that we never thought about a plan whenever an attack happens.” Utonium finally smiled at the irkens, offering one hand to Zim. “I believe you can help us better than anyone to develop our defenses from any possible problems we could have.”

Zim opened his eyes widely, looking at Utoniums hand.

“We can create a stealth shield! One that covers all the station!” Said Moose already excited with the idea.

“And weapons! Oh, it’s been a while since I made some! I have so many ideas for laser canons, and we can put some on the ships!” Gir shaked Vir joyfully as he talked, getting just a smile and a nod from her.

“You are not our enemies, and if you helps us with this, we’ll forgive you about what happened today.” Professor Membrane add as he stood next to his husband.

Zim look at them before looking back at Dib, accepting Utonium's hand before answering. “As a former prince of Irk, you have my word that we will do anything to help you protect everyone in Astra.”

“We need to talk with the stations council and let them know what are we going to do, and if we can start with the arrangements right away. We’ll come back in a couple of hours son.” Said Membrane before walking out of the room followed by Utonium.

“Can you please leave us alone for a minute? Go and see if there’s anything you can help with.” Zim turned at his team. They nod and leave the room as well.

“Is it me or… Was Dib disappointed with the Irkens departure?” Membrane asked his husband as he rubbed his chin.

“Well, well, well. Seems like someone is finally making a new discovery.” Utonium teased as he laughed.

“Hey! Dib had always been so discreet with whom he likes. It is hard to know something like this! But I guess it will get noticeable with the prolonged staying of the irkens.”

* * *

Dib had no idea what to say now, he just looked down at his arm before he looked back at Zim. “So… what happened to your eye? Is it okay?”

Zim blinked a couple of times before covering his right eye for a moment. “Oh! Yes it is… My eyes, ah, their actual color is magenta. I created this lenses to cover the color. When the vortian spat on me he only burnt the lense, dont worry!”

“I see… And that’s why the vortian recognized you?” Zim got closer to Dib's bed. “Yes, kind of… Back on Irk, there had only been four irkens with magenta eyes. My great great grandfather Thulian, My great aunt Brink, My father Cerise, and me. Everyone on the empire knows who I am, so I tried to change my appearance the most. I never thought something like this could happened so I don’t have any spare… I guess I’ll need one.”

“Yeah… I think you do” he took his gaze away once more. Dib still had no idea of what to say or do. But Zim did.

“I’m sorry! I--I never wanted this! It’s my fault you were injured, I didn’t act quickly, and I understand if you dont want to work with me anymore and--“

“Zim, Zim, stop!” Dib held his hand up to shut the irken. “I know this wasn’t something you wanted at all. It’s okay, it actually made me realize that I need to learn how to fight or defend myself, I mean, all my knowledge worths nothing against dangerous threats.”

“I can help you! I know a lot of combat techniques and what kind of armor you need to prevent injuries!” Zim face was bursting with joy an excitement, he didn’t even noticed when he jumped on the bed, grabbing Dib by his face, as tender as he could. “Ooooh beautiful one! You will not only be smart and brave! I’m going to make a fine warrior out of you!”

Once again Dib's face was burning and completely red. Zim’s closeness and words got him out of his comfort zone in seconds. It was hard but he nodded twice before taking the irken's hands away as kindly as he could to set his face free. “Yeah, sure. I’ve never had any kind of training though, so I hope I don’t disappoint you that much.”

“Nonsense! I’m sure you will do it fantastically, just as everything you do!” Zim had no idea what his words were doing to Dib's ego. He barely knew about this so called ‘compliments’, for Zim, this was just telling the truth.

For Dib, well, it was the first time someone, out of his family or work crew, said so many good things about him. And he had no idea how he could handle it from now on, especially now that the irkens were going to stay longer.

* * *

As soon as Dibs arm got better his training began. Of course, being a man of science only, he had it hard when it came to exercise, even when his fathers gave him and the rest of the team some especials vitamins to increase their stamina and muscles strength. It took some time, but finally, five months later, Dib was able to run faster, made some squats and some other things with ease, or at least better than before.

“Twenty seven! Twenty eight! Twenty nine! Thirty!” Dib, two other guys and a girl were competing to see who could lift themselves on the bars more times in a row. One guy fell down after thirty five, the girl fell after fifty, so it was only Dib against Torque.

“Come on, Dib! You can hit one hundred, I know it!” Zim cheered from were he was standing. He couldn’t take his eyes away from said human. His face all red, dripping with sweat. His arms and chest muscles clenching as he went up. For any irken this would be a disgusting image, for Zim it was the most pleasant thing he had ever seen in a long time, and, was he drooling?... “Ninety seven! Ninety eight!-- oh no!” The screaming got him out of his thoughts immediately as he saw Dib on the floor, panting for air. “One hundred! One hundred one! One hundred two!...” Torque looked like he could kept going the whole day and Zim was very impressed by it “My Irk! You are very strong Torque! Now don’t stop until your arms fell down from your torso! I wanna see how much pain can your body take!” screamed Zim excitedly as he looked at the human still going.

Dib got up, and picked his shirt to clean the sweat out of his face. He felt like he had no arms at all, but nothing hurted him more than the sight of Zim cheering Torque. It was weird, all of those months, Zim helped him and the rest of the team daily. They still worked together on his lab from time to time but now, Zim split his time with other people as well, and Dib was fine with that. But seeing Zim so excited about someone in particular, praising someone else, got him very uncomfortable. He walked to the other side of the Gym to get some water as he saw how everyone kept on cheering.

“One hundred fifty-five! What an impressive number! You are definitely a strong being, Torque! I’ve only seen this kind of strength on irken guards, and never thought I will see a human like it!”

Every word coming out of Zim’s mouth were like daggers to Dib, he couldn’t even hide the disgust face he was making, and thankfully he was alone, or at least that’s what he thought.

“I’ve never thought you were the jealous type…”

“Gaz, what the-- what are you doing here?!” out of nowhere, his sister was next to him.

“Gir and Moose want to show us the new weaponry and how to activate the stealth shield, so they asked for you and our dads but I guess I just tell them to start without you, since you are to busy cursing Torque's guts for having the attention of your alien.” Said as casual as she could, looking at the team clapping and cheering Torque, including Zim.

“Ok, first of all…” Said Dib as he put his shirt on again and took his things before walking out of the place. “He’s not my alien, he’s no one’s property! And second, I’m not jealous! I just can’t believe how things are just the same as on earth. No matter how hard I work, the jocks will always have everyone’s attention and it’s sickening.” Gaz waited for Dib to finish before speaking again.

“Hmmm, so it’s just that? It has nothing to do with Zim praising someone else? You are not being totally gay for an alien?”

“Yes, no, aaand no! Of course not!” Dib cleaned his face with a small towel as he walked towards the new weaponry deposit. Gaz wanted to mess with his brother but a sudden explosion cut her thoughts immediately.

“What the--“ Dib and Gaz ran until they finally reached the deposits main entrance. In there, behind the door of a safe room, Doctor Membrane and Utonium were writing on their Membracelets, while Vir and Moose nod in disapproval about what just had happened.

Gir was trying the new weapons against some scrap metal in the end of the deposit, but he got carried away and shot the biggest one, creating a big hole on the deposit's ceiling. “Look at that! I thought It was just going to burn the ceiling, but it turned out way better!” Gir laughed like a maniac for a couple of seconds before Vir came out of the safe room.

“Next time try not shoot inside of the space station. Nobody wants a hole sucking everyone to the outer space.” She didn’t sound mad, nor worried. It was kind of hard to know since Vir had always have a serious frame.

“I’ll do my best, squintzy!” Gir nuzzled his forehead against Virs forehead, tangling his antennae together.

“Squintzy?” Dib asked outloud without even thinking it.

“It’s a lovable way to refer to someone. Such a as ‘Dear, sweetheart, honey’ and all of those words” Vir said as she got her head away from Gir.

“ugh...” Gaz rolled her eyes before he walked to the safe room.

“That’s nice. I’d love to learn more about irken's language, also the traditions and culture, they must be quite rich.”

“Oh I’m sure Zim would love to teach everything about them!” Gir said jumping excitedly in front of Dib.

“Yeah, I’m not sure of it…”

“Come on! He’s practically-- OUCH” Vir interrupted Gir by stomping his foot before he said anything else.

“Dib, can you please come to the safe room with your parents and us? We need to double check some things.” Said Vir as everyone followed her back inside.

* * *

Everyone went out of the deposit, except for Dib, he had to change a few things about the weapons location outside the station. He decided to work in the safe room since it was quite and peaceful, and far from the Gym. The scene of Zim cheering Torque still hunted him, and he could barely stand it. What if Gaz was right? Was he being ‘gay’, for an alien? He was jealous about someone else having Zim’s attention? Did Zim consider Torque beautiful? Even more than him?... Stupid! Absolutely stupid! He didn’t have time to think about this. The weapons! He better focused in those weapons. Unfortunately, he was not going to be able to do so.

“Dib?! Dib! Your sister told me you were here!” Zim got inside the deposit, looking around for said human.

Dib got up from his seat and come out of the safe room. “I’m here!”

“Hey! What happened? You missed the rest of the training session”

“Sorry, Moose and Gir asked for my help and my dads are kind of busy so I’m trying to finish everything by myself.”

“Is that so? Do you need any help?” Zim asked a little enthusiastic.

“Uuh, no, I was just about to head out.” Said Dib as he scratched the back of his neck. “But thanks!”

“I see… Then what if we finish today’s training?! Do you still have energy for it?”

“I guess I have some energy but I don’t think I’m a good training partner for you” he shrugged. Dib tried not to sound too venomous but it was difficult with how he was feeling.

“What are you talking about? You’ve been doing just great in the trainings! You got faster and stronger in a couple of weeks, it’s a great improvement for a human.” That definitely helped his ego, but not enough.

“Right, I’m getting stronger but not strong as Torque. I’m still a couple of levels behind him.”

“You are comparing yourself with Torque? Yes, he might be strong but that’s it.” Zim looked at Dib with a serious face, he looked kind of angry, and he was. Then, one of the weapons of his PAK, the artifact on his back, activated, shooting some kind of rubber bullets towards Dib.

He could barely dodged, throwing himself to his left side, spinning on the floor to jump back on his feet quickly. “What the hell was that for?!” he had no idea why Zim did that, but he took a defensive stance just in case.

“No speaking, just move. Hurry! Find a way to stop me!” Zim said before shooting once again.

Dib kept moving side to side until he found a large piece of metal to hide behind. He needed to think. Zim had his PAK thingy to practically do everything for him… He searched for something on his Membracelet and when he found it, he decided to leave his hiding spot. He moved as fast as he could to get closer to Zim, avoiding the bullets as he did. He only had one shot. After a few jumps, he finally made it, a couple of steps in front of Zim, he shot something from his bracelet. It looked like a magnetic coin, which got stuck on Zim's chest without realizing until it was too late.

“Aaagh!” An electric shock traveled through Zim’s body, deactivating his PAKs functions “Good! But I’m still standing and ready to fight!” As he talked, Zim took a defensive stance, waiting for Dib to come at him.

He was tired but he wouldn’t let Zim win that easily. So as soon as he stood in front of him, he threw some punches, which the irken easily dodged, just as Dib knew he would. Quickly, he raised his leg and kicked Zim's right side. 

Zim almost fell with the kick but managed to stay steady before he jumped backwards, using both of his feet to kick Dib's face.

The kicks made him stumble a bit, but he wasn’t defeated, throwing another punch, and another, and another, going on different targets such as Zim’s face, torso and chest, but only one hit the spot.

With a loud huffed, Zim felt the pain aching on his Squeedlyspooch, right in the middle of his body, so before Dib could punched him once again, Zim took his fist, twisting Dibs arm and then throwing him back.

Dib fell hard on the floor, and before he could do anything, Zim climbed on him, restraining his arms with his hands. “You win, you win! Now let me go.” It was awful enough knowing he wasn’t as strong as he needed to, and now Zim defeated him easily, it just made him way more frustrated. “I told you I’m not a good training partner! I told you--“

“What did you do to my PAK?”

“What? I…”

“What did you do, Dib? Why I can’t use it?” Zim wasn’t mad about, he looked kind of curious about the malfunction of his PAK.

“I just shot an electromagnetic wave that blocks any kind of device for a few minutes or hours, it depends on the device” Zim let Dib go, taking a seat next to him on the floor.

“You see, Dib. Even when Torque is stronger than you, he is not capable to come up with something like this.” Zim found the little coin like bullet on his chest, ripping it before speaking. “He fought very good today, but when I used my PAK legs, he wasn’t able to do anything.”

Dib sat where he was, listening attentively.

“You on the other hand, came up with an idea to neutralize it and then you fought, and I have to say, you gave me a hard time today.” Zim smiled as he looked at Dib. “Muscles don’t matter if you have no brains to work with, and you have both! This is the first time someone is capable to block my PAKs functions successfully, and I think we might work with that, it might be really helpful.”

Zim was at it again, and Dib felt like exploding from excitement. It was stupid feeling like this with a few words, or maybe there was another reason.“Thanks, I’m really working hard on myself but I tried to work in new ideas to help with the security here in Astra.”

“I know beautiful one! You can’t keep your mind shut and that’s one of the things I like the must about you!--“ those words slipped from his mouth before he could notice. Zim blushed furiously with a pale lilac color all over his face. Did he just? Yes, he did... Zim stood up immediately, dusting off his clothes before he started walking out of the place, practically running. “Oh I almost forgot, Vir wanted to tell me something! See you later!”

Dib opened his mouth to say something, but Zim got away before, leaving him confused and alone. Did he listen correctly? Zim said he likes him?... His Membracelet cut him out of his thoughts, ringing loudly with an entering call.

“ _Dib! Did you finish?”_ an holographic picture of professor Utonium popped out of the Membracelet looking at Dib.

“Um, almost, I got distracted with something.”

“ _It’s fine, you can finish it later. Now, can you please come to my office?”_

“Yeah, sure. I’ll be there in five.”

* * *

After his private conversation with Vir, Zim was heading to Dibs laboratory, there was something he wanted to talk to him and couldn’t wait any longer.

“… Are you Zim?” A deep voice asked from behind, making Zim turned his head to look at the person.

“Yes, I am! Let me guess, you want an autograph or join our training team?”

Two tall guys stood side by side behind him, looking at each other, nodding before grabbing Zim.

“What is the meaning of this?! Let me go, you idiots! This is not a way to--“ they stabbed Zim on his neck, and after a few seconds, he was unconscious.

* * *

“Dib! Just give me a sec and I’ll be with you!” Professor Utonium said from behind his desk, typing as fast as he could.

Dib nodded before taking a seat in the other side, waiting patiently for his stepfather to finish.

“So! Do you have plans for tonight?”

“Uh… tonight, I’m afraid I don’t--“

"Yes, tonight as in, for dinner!” Dib looked at him confused.

“I guess not, I don’t have any plans… why?”

“Great! Do you remember Gretchen? One of the nurses at the medbay.”

“Yes…” Dib had no idea where this was going but he sensed he won’t like it.

“Well, she’s been asking for you and your health since you left the Medbay, and today she asked your father and me if you were free to have dinner with her.”

“Oh…” That wasn’t what Dib was thinking about, and it surely was a surprise. “I, well, umm” he scratched the back of his neck, not knowing exactly what to say. “You see, I--“

“Don’t feel attracted by her? You already are interested in someone else?... Don’t you?” Utonium smile widely at his words, noticing how his stepson was blushing.

“I--yeah, I think so… I mean, Gretchen was so nice to me back then but, I don’t want to get her hopes too high accepting her invitation, you know?”

“Of course, of course. Besides, who else is going to be next to Zim in the late night trainings, right?”

“Uh, yes! Exactly. He needs my help when people talk about earth or humans things around him.”

“Sure there’s any other reason, right?” Utonium raised an eyebrow as he looked at him.

Oh no, he knew, he definitely knew. “Well, I, I mean…”

“If you don’t want to talk about this with me, I completely understand.” Utonium said as his frame softened with his words. “It’s not that… it just, I’m so confused! I haven’t felt like this in a long time, and I think my father told you about my last ‘relationship’. So I don’t want to screw things up this time, for me and, well, for Zim...” Dib reclined on his seat, looking at at the ceiling. “I still don’t know much about irkens, and if they have relationships like us. I mean, Vir and Gir seem like they have one but still, it’s very different from the relationships between humans.”

“Well, you are a scientist! Don’t you? If someone can discover how things works, it’s you!”

Dib raised his head smiling. He was right, the only way to know if a relationship with Zim would work was actually getting into. He was about to thank his stepfather when one screen appeared behind professor Utonium, flashing a red light.

[UNSOLICITED DEPARTURE ON DECK 45-7. PLEASE CHECK SYSTEM FOR A POSSIBLE SECURITY BREACH]

“This is impossible! One of our research pods came out of the station without any authorization!”

“How could that happened?” Dib stood up to look at the screen as Utonium searched for who activated the pod.

“Is Dib in here?!” someone screamed as he ran inside of the office.

“Whats going on?” Dib turned to look at Gir, who looked worried.

“Where is Zim? He said he was going to your Lab!”

“I thought he was with you!”

“Oh no…” Professor Utonium said under his breath as he looked at one of the surveillance cameras screens.

“What, you got something?” Dib looked at the screens, trying to see something in particular. “Wait, is that?--“

“ON IRKS NAME, THEY HAVE ZIM!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another cliffhanger  
> I'm too cruel for putting them but hey! They keep things interesting!
> 
> Someone asked about the "Beautiful one" thingy of Zim and well, it's nothing important. It just a nice change from the "Stinky, ugly" names Zim calls Dib
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Next one will be the last and I hope I have it ready for valentines day!

**Author's Note:**

> YES I SHIPP MEMBRANE AND UTONIUM, I'M GUILTY YOUR HIGHNESS AND YES THEY SHIPP ZADR
> 
> Anyway, this is a 3 parts one shot  
> Maybe four? Idk but there's still some things to unpack so I hope you like this enough to wait for the next part!


End file.
